An Evolutionary Approach to Emergence and Social Causation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21159631
AutoresNuno Ornelas Martins (0000-0001-7966-6435, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, autor correspondente), Nuno Martins (0009-0003-4142-562X)
Ano2011
Volume10
Fascículo2
Páginas192-218
Data de publicação2011-04-05
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Critical Realism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1476-7430 • E-ISSN: 1572-5138
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/jcr.v10i2.192
OpenAlexW2161210220
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas21

Rom Harr criticizes critical realism for ascribing causal powers to social structures, arguing that it is human individuals, and not social structures, that possess causal powers, and that a false conception of structural causation undermines the emancipatory potential of critical realism. I argue that an interpretation of the category of process as the spatio-temporalization of the category of structure, which underpins much evolutionary theory, provides the conceptual tools to explain how the critical realist transformational model of social activity can escape from Harr's criticism, leading to a general conception of social development within which various types of evolutionary processes can be identified as particular cases. I then argue that Tony Lawson's PVRS model provides an evolutionary perspective that enables the conceptualization of coercive power as selective pressure

Causation · Epistemology · Sociology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Philosophy